While her friends were getting married, embarking on a new job or enrolling at university, 20-year-old Nora Booth had other plans in mind. She was going to join the British Army – as a Gunner.

After voluntarily signing up on January 2, 1942, Nora was quickly dispatched to a training camp in Newton Stewart, Scotland, where she learnt new methods and skills. It was here where she first discovered the terrible truth behind the Second World War.

The camp was also being used to hold Italian prisoners of war. Nora, who lives in Alrewas, recalled her time at her first training camp as "horrible."

Nora said she and her comrades were "brainwashed" during her time in the Second World War

The 95-year-old said: "You were brainwashed, definitely. They were just young boys. I used to think it was such a shame that they were away from home. They used to have to wear great big orange patches on their backs so they couldn't fraternise with the other people in the camp."

Nora was still at the camp over Christmas. She recalled the constant, never-ending snow that seemed to go on for longer than six weeks. Eventually, the snow was so high that the postman was unable to deliver any Christmas cards or gifts - no one at the camp received presents on time that year.

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Once Nora had finished her basic training, she was posted to a firing school to learn how to shoot down the enemy and become a real Gunner. In the meantime, she got married, and was hoping to be stationed abroad once she finally began her post. However, in order to do this Nora had to get permission from her husband.

She mailed permission papers to her husband Arthur, who was away fighting in Holland, but he never sent them back. Although he claimed he never received them, Nora believed he was lying.

Nora Booth with Terry Finn, President of the Alrewas Royal British Legion

After seeing that Nora was able to display high levels of intellect, she was encouraged to take her exams and become an instructor to train others. Nora could take a telephone to pieces and wire it up again, which was enough to impress anybody. Not just anyone could apply for these roles – you had to be clever.

As expected, Nora sat her exams and passed with flying colours. She was called into the office and was told she could be promoted to Sgt, but she was unable to accept the offer.

It was time for Nora to begin her Army career as a Gunner in the Ack Ack 509 Heavy Mixed Battery in London. Short for Anti-Aircraft Artillery, it was Nora's job to bring down enemy planes. The camp moved around constantly together, staying on the south coast right up until the war finished.

Directly hitting an enemy aircraft was fairly rare, but Nora knew that even spooking a German pilot enough for him to alter his course would make it much less likely that his bombs would land on target.

Nora described her journeys as she moved from field to field to shoot down Doodlebug planes. Often, the battery would find themselves in a beautiful meadow, but sometimes, it would be a muddy field.

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The group were unable to stay in these conditions as the guns would sink and they could not get a reading of where the enemy planes were, so they continued to move onwards.

Nora still remembers the "boom", "boom", "boom" of the Doodlebug bomber planes flying above her head. When they stopped dead in their tracks, that's when she knew the bombs would drop. Nora and the rest of her comrades managed to shoot down 37 planes in total.

Although Nora was never lonely during her time as a Gunner, she remembers never being able to make a "proper" friend.

She said: "We just went out with whoever we were on duty with. Some of them weren't very good. Some of them were quite rough. But mostly, we were there for each other."

Nora was 22 when she returned home from war

When she wasn't bringing down German planes, Nora would watch British soldiers fly out to fight for their country. The then-youngster would sit and count the planes one by one as they flew away to meet their destiny.

Unfortunately, not all of them came back. Ambulances would wait on standby for any soldier that needed help. Some would come back with just one wing, and some would land and then blow up. Nora described this as a "heart-breaking" experience.

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By now, it was summer time. Every one of the cooks at the battalion had contracted mumps, an extremely contagious viral infection of the salivary glands. Having a knack for baking, Nora volunteered herself to make food for the rest of her squadron. However, she wasn't alone; Nora chose a friend to cook with her. She remembers her cooking companion as being so tiny that she had to stand on a step to reach the sideboard.

The comrades were so hungry, their seven-day ration lasted a whole two days. To ensure they didn't starve, the comrades collected apples and mushrooms daily, as well as scrimping leftover sausages and liver from their local butchers. Nora said the group were "very sorry" when the original cooks recovered because they no longer received the luxurious treatment she gave them.

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"Just to see something like that and think to yourself, 'oh, it's just another one of those things’, it just became an everyday thing. Well now, it would be a disaster."

Nora Booth, nicknamed 'Dobby', was 22 when the Second World War ended and she left London to return home. Now living in Churchill Crescent, Alrewas, she is a regular visitor and member of the Royal British Legion.